kc5vdj@yahoo.com said
>No offense, but we destroyed one of their planes, and killed their pilot.
Scuse me? The Chinese fighter struck our spy plane in international air
space. There was not a matter of our "playing chicken" with Chinese
fighter jets. Please try to visualize a Mayflower moving van being towed
by a Toyoya pickup, while suicidal Ferrari and Corvette drivers try to
force it off the road.
The Chinese pilot who died was simply not as good a pilot as he thought he
was, or his plane was not as good as he thought it was. He caused a
mid-air collision through his reckless behavior. We did not destroy their
plane and kill their pilot. Their pilot managed to do that on his own.
International law allows vessels in distress in international space to seek
safe harbor at the nearest port -- in this case, safe landing at the
nearest strip.
What followed was a violation of US territory, and theft of enormous
proportions. If I stripped out a US spy plane that happened to land in
front of my house, I would be executed.
But you are right -- we would NEVER give back an aircraft from an
unfriendly government. We never have. And we managed to get our hands on
quite a few Soviet MiGs of various flavors. Stripped 'em down to the
rivets, we did.
Juse because we did it doesn't make it right. Doesn't make it right that
the Chinese did it too.
But don't accuse our side of destroying a hostile plane when the idiot
pilot ran into US. Even a groundhog like me knows that if you fly an itty
bitty fighter into the propwash of a big lumbering flying tuna boat,
there's liable to be trouble.
Jim N6OTQ
So how about those Chinese 811As, eh?
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